Reason #1 like Bovada:

It's fair and relatively safe

Online gambling is largely unregulated. That means the casinos generally don't answer to anyone. If you have a problem with a casino (like you think they were cheating, or they won't pay you, for example), then you're usually out of luck.

That's why the most important thing in playing online is to pick a good casino. Good casinos offer fair games and consistent payouts because that way they'll get both repeat customers and good word-of-mouth from satisfied customers. It's no coincidence that the most successful online casinos are the ones that focus on their customers. Bovada is one of those.

But some casinos aren't so smart. The stupidest ones actually rig the games, promptly get blacklisted at sites like Casinomeister, and then their business dries up. (It's pretty easy for gambling mathematicians like the Wizard of Odds to determine whether a casino is cheating.)

Cheating is rare. You're more likely to have a problem getting a payout. Some casinos try to find excuses to not pay winning players, especially players who have won big. And again, since online gambling is unregulated, if you can't get a payout from a casino, then you're usually out of luck.

So all this is another reason why I advertise Bovada, and have done so for ten years. They use industry-standard software, it's absolutely fair, and players get their payouts, consistently. I have a choice in whom I advertise, so I purposefully picked a casino with a good reputation where I'm confident my readers will have a good experience.

Bovada also allows me to mediate if one of my readers clicks over to them, plays, and has a problem they can't get Bovada to resolve. Believe me, I wouldn't offer that service if I got more than a trivial number of inquiries on that topic.

Bottom line: Bovada is fair and relatively safe. You might have a good experience with another casino...and you might not. I know Bovada is good, and that's why I picked them.

Crash Course in
Table Games

How to
Play Casino Games

It's no
secret: table games offer good odds, but slot machines suck
your money away quickly.So why
do most people prefer slots? Probably because slots
offer the possibility of a huge jackpot. Five dollars on
blackjack can win, well, usually $5. But five bucks in a
slot machine could win thousands -- or even millions.

So that keeps players glued to the slot machines.
They know they probably won't win, but they want the chance
of a big win. Unfortunately, they pay dearly for that
chance: Slot players easily lose more money than table games
players, because slot odds are poor and the games are played
at a lightning pace.

But you can switch from slots to table games and
still have a chance of winning a big jackpot. In
fact, you have a better chance of winning a big
jackpot with table games than with slots. The trick is to
bet more when you win, say from 1/4th of your bankroll to
all of your bankroll. Do this with blackjack and your
chances of winning $1 million are over 300 times better than
your chances of hitting the Megabucks jackpot. There's more
on that on our page about How
to win $1 million at a table game.

Of course, to enjoy the better odds available at table
games you have to know how to play them. That's where
this website comes in. Maybe you're a slot player tired of
losing your shirt every time you take a gambling vacation,
and you're ready to have a better chance of winning. Or
maybe you've never been to the casino, but you're smart
enough to seek out the best bets rather than throwing your
money away in slots. Either way, we'll show you the basics
of playing table games. Even if you're playing online rather
than in a "real" casino, you'll still save your bankroll by
dumping the slots and playing the table games instead.

How much does playing slots instead of table games cost
you? Let's take a look at the expected loss for a weekend
(10 hours) of play, using the Crash Course methods
described below:

Table
Game

Avg. loss per 10
hours

-$800

-$360

-$160

-$80

-$80

-$80

-$21

Assumptions: Slots played 800 spins/hr. Slot
returns are average for Las Vegas Strip &
Downtown casinos as published in Jan. 2002
Casino Player (94% for quarters and 95% for
dollars). MiniBaccarat, Blackjack, and Craps played
at 150, 100, and 30 rounds/hr. respectively. Table
games played as per crash course strategies listed
below. Table shows mathematical expected result,
though results obviously will vary due to
short-term fluctuation.

If this isn't enough to convince you to try table
games, I don't know what is. You don't even have to
abandon slots if you love them -- but when you need a break
from the monotony of slots, trying a table game instead of
continuing on a slot binge will save you money.

Learning any table game in depth could take a while -- 30
minutes to a few hours, depending on the game. But the
secret is, learning just the basics is enough to give
you way better odds than you'd get on a slot machine. So
let's proceed to the gambling lessons -- our handy crash
course on casino games.

Print Out this
Page

Print out this page and take it with you to the casino.
The casino won't care. It's much easier to use this page as
a cheat sheet rather than trying to memorize everything.

Getting
Chips

Every table has a minimum bet, indicated by a sign on the
table (usually $5 for blackjack). Make sure to read the sign
so you don't buy in at a $25 table when you meant to be at a
$5 table. (If you make a mistake and buy in at the wrong
table, you don't have to play there, you can just take your
chips to another table, but it can still be embarrassing if
everyone sees you picked the wrong table.)

Put your cash on the table, right in front of you,
between two betting circles (or in craps, outside the
great big box). Don't hand your money to the dealer; they
can't take it directly from your hand. When you put it on
the table, don't put it inside a marked circle or on any
writing, or the dealer may think you want to bet the cash
and start dealing! The dealer will finish the hand (s)he's
dealing before looking at your money, so be patient -- if
your money's on the table, they'll get to it.

Dealers don't make change. Any money you put on the table
will be turned into chips. Then again, you don't have to bet
all your chips. When you're done, you take whatever chips
you have left to the cashier booth to cash them in.

Red chips are worth $5 and green chips are $25. The $1
chips are either silver or white. Red and green chips are
sometimes called "nickels" or "quarters", respectively. The
dealer may ask "How do you want that?", meaning do you want
all red, or some red and green, etc. Whatever you get,
always get at least five silver for tipping the dealer and
the cocktail waitress. More on tipping later.

Use Your Slot
Card

Yep, you can use your slot card on table games. Just
place it on the table with your money. The dealer will give
it to a floor supervisor, who will write down the number on
the card and then give it back to you. Your play won't show
up as points the next time you put your card into a machine,
but you can still get free meals once you've played long
enough. (Ask a floor supervisor how long you need to play to
get a meal.) Free goodies you get from the casino are called
comps. (More on
comps.)

Using
Chips

Make a bet by putting one or more chips in the betting
circle or other marked betting area. If you're betting
different color chips, the larger denomination chips go on
bottom.

Don't touch your bet (chips) once you've placed it! Some
people try to cheat the casino by decreasing their bet
(removing chips) when they've lost a hand, or adding chips
when they've won a hand. Because of this, the casinos don't
want your hands near your chips once your bet is placed, and
the dealers enforce the no-touching rule very seriously.

When you're finished playing, push your chips forward and
ask the dealer to "color up", which means to turn your stack
of low-denomination chips into a few high denomination
chips. That way you have fewer chips to carry over to the
cashier cage to cash them in. Just make sure you don't push
your chips into a betting circle, otherwise the dealer might
think you want to bet all your chips!

How much to
bet

When you're new at any game, always play the table
minimum, usually $5. If you could afford to play quarter
slots, you can easy afford to bet $5 a hand at a table. A
$500 bankroll is usually sufficient for a weekend of play
(15 hours) at most table games.

Getting Help from the
Dealer

Don't be afraid to ask the dealer for help, especially if
you don't understand some of the instructions listed here.
For example, you might see that the blackjack strategy below
tells you to split two 8's, and you have two 8's but you
have no idea how to split them. Just ask, "How do I split
these?", and the dealer will tell you how.

Be sure you can tell the difference when the dealer tells
you that you can't do something vs. that you
shouldn't do something. If the dealer says you can't,
well, that's the rules, and you can't. But if the dealer
advises against something just because they think it's a bad
bet (like splitting 8's), then remain firm that you want to
make your play. Believe it or not, most dealers don't know
the complete and proper strategies for the games they're
dealing, and the other players are no better.

Tipping

Like waiters, dealers generally make minimum wage and
work for tips. I generally tip out $5 per hour I play ($1 at
a time throughout the hour). A tip for a dealer is called a
toke. You can offer your tip directly to the dealer,
or you can place a bet for the dealer. I often ask which
they prefer, but almost all dealers go for the bet rather
than taking the toke directly. Betting for the dealer is a
good way to establish rapport with the dealer, and in games
like blackjack when you're betting against the dealer's
hand, this reminds you that your opponent is really
the casino, not the dealer herself. Betting for the dealer
is done differently in different games, so just ask the
dealer at your game, "How do I place a bet for you?"

Tipping, of course, is optional, and some players don't
tip at all. But remember that most dealers, like waiters,
make minimum wage and are really working for tips. (And at
the El Cortez, dealers averaged only $21/day in tips in
2003, according to The Dealer's News.) Also, the IRS
takes 28% out of their tip pool right away. I don't tip
unfriendly or unhelpful dealers, but I'll tip even an
average dealer $5/hr. (On the other hand, most U.S. casinos
require all dealers to pool their tips together.) Don't
worry about losing money from tipping -- $5/hr. is
way less than you'd lose on slots.

The cocktail waitress will come around periodically to
take your order for free drinks. An adequate tip is a dollar
every two drinks.

The Games

Baccarat
& Mini-Baccarat

This game is the closest thing to a table
version of a slot machine: You place your bets, the cards
are dealt, and then they tell you whether you won or not.
You don't make any decisions, just like a slot machine.
You simply bet and cross your fingers. You have a choice
of three different bets (Banker, Player, or Tie). Banker
is the best bet, so just bet on Banker every time.
You'll enjoy a very low house edge of only 1.06%. The
dealer will take a 5% commission on winning hands, but
your low 1.06% disadvantage includes the commision.

No popups, no registration, no
download, no B.S., just the game. One click and
you're in.

Craps

The players take turns rolling the dice.
Everyone bets on the same roll of the dice, no matter
who's rolling. It probably won't be your turn to roll
right away, and if you're still getting used to the game
you can pass your turn (unless you're the only one
playing, of course). After you've bought chips, look for
a big hockey puck on the table that says ON or OFF. If it
says ON, wait until the dealer turns it to OFF before you
place your bet. As soon as it goes to OFF, then put
your betting chip on the part of the table marked PASS
LINE. If you lose the dealer will take your chip. If
you win the dealer will give you another chip, which
you'll pick up, and let your original bet play again. If
the marker gets turned to ON, you're moving into a bonus
round and have another chance to win. At this point place
another chip below (due South) of your original bet. Most
of the other bets at craps are sucker bets, so don't make
them. If you play as recommended, you'll enjoy a very low
house edge (casino profit per bet) of less than 1%.

You don't even have to understand what's going on,
though it's probably more fun if you do. Short summary:
Right after you place your bet, rolling a 7 or 11 wins,
while a 2, 3, or 12 loses. Any other number moves you
into the bonus round. In the bonus round, rolling the
number that got you into the bonus round wins, while a 7
loses, and any other number is irrelevant, For more info
check out our detailed craps
lesson.

Roulette

The odds on roulette are at least five times
worse than baccarat, blackjack, or craps, but it's played
much slower so your expected loss is about the same. But
the bad odds do mean you're less likely to walk away a
winner than if you'd played one of the other games
instead. Most roulette wheels have a 0 and a 00, and have
a 5.3% house edge. Some wheels have only the 0 (no 00),
and have about a 2.6% house edge. Although the Single
Zero wheel gives better odds, even with a 00 wheel and $5
bets you'll lose less money than on a 5-coin nickel slot
machine. Playing Roulette is easy: Just buy chips, and
put your chip(s) on the number(s) you think will win, or
on red or black, even or odd, etc. For the most part,
it doesn't matter what bet you pick: Except for
one obscure bet, all bets carry the same odds. To
make your money last longer try to find a single 0 wheel,
and make only one bet per round regardless of what kind
of wheel you find. Also, understand that your odds are
the same on every spin. If black has just come up ten
times in a row, your odds haven't changed, black and red
are equally likely on the next spin. (If you don't
believe me start flipping a coin and notice that after
three heads, you're equally likely to get heads as tails
on the next flip.) For the curious we also have more
detailed information about roulette.

Blackjack

You can get an ultra-low 0.5% house edge with a
couple of hours of study. But even with just this crash
course you'll enjoy a low house edge of around 1.5% and
lose way less money than at slots. Remember, if you don't
understand these instructions, just tell the dealer what
you want to do and s/he'll help you. For example, if you
have two 8's and you know you want to split, ask, "How do
I split these?"

Here's how the game works: Each player plays against
the dealer, not against each other. So your objective is
to beat the dealer. Here's how the scoring works:

Whoever has a higher score when the round is over,
without going over 21, wins.

If the total of all the cards in a hand is over 21
(22 or higher), that hand is said to "bust". If you
bust, you automatically lose, even if the dealer busts
too.

If you didn't bust then you win if your total is
higher than the dealer's total.

If either side gets a ten and an ace, it's called
a blackjack and wins automatically. If the other side
also has blackjack then it's a tie.

All cards are face value, except face cards count as
10. An ace counts as eleven unless it would bust your
hand, in which case it counts as 1. You and the dealer
each get two cards but you only get to see one of the
dealer's cards. Your choices are now:

Hit (take another card)

Double (double your bet, take one more card, and
end your turn)

Split (too complicated to explain in the crash
course, see the full
rules)

Stand (end your turn and let the others play)

Here's your crash course strategy:

(1) Never play a game marked "Super Fun 21"
or a game that says "Blackjack pays 6:5" on the table
felt. These games aren't real blackjack and the odds
are three times as bad as the real thing.

(2) When your total is 9, 10 or 11, double when the
dealer's up card is less than your total.

(3) Always split two 8's or two Aces.

(4) If the dealer's up card is 7 or more, then hit
until you have at least 17, then stand.

(5) If the dealer's up card is 6 or less, than hit
until you have at least 12, then stand.

(6) Never take insurance or even money.

Dealers and players may want to give you advice and
suggest you play differently than what's suggested above.
It's usually fine to take their advice, except that you
should always split 8's and aces, you never want
insurance or even money, no matter what the dealer or
other players say. (The dealer is trained to deal the
game, s/he knows nothing about the math behind it.)

For those willing to do a little extra work we also
have the complete blackjack
strategy. If you learn the proper strategy then stick
to it and ignore when the dealer and other players tell
you you're playing "wrong".

Expected Loss

So how does all this compare to slots, money-wise? Check
out the table, which shows how much you save over slots for
one hour of play, using the strategies listed
above:

800

8.0%
6.0%
5.0%

$16
$36
$80

(n/a)

30

5.5%

$8

78%

150

1.06%

$8

78%

100

1.50%

$8

78%

30

0.85%

$3

92%

*Slot returns are
average for Las Vegas Strip & Downtown casinos as
published in Jan. 2002 Casino Player. Roulette
assumes 0+00 wheel; if you find a 0 wheel the odds are even
better, saving you 89% over quarter slots. Edges for other
games assume you play according to strategy listed in Crash
Course, above. You can get even better odds at Blackjack if
you learn the basic
strategy.

How to get a big jackpot with table
games

The reason that people play slots vs. table games in
the first place is that slots offer the advantage of a big
jackpot. Not so in a game like blackjack, where a $5 bet
usually wins, at most, another $5. But there's a way to play
table games and still have the chance of hitting a
big jackpot like you would with slots: Use a simple betting
system, as detailed in our article about how
to win a million dollars at table games. The gist of it
is: Start off with $10, play blackjack, and bet 1/4th of
your bankroll on every hand. Your chances of hitting a
million dollars this way are much greater than with
slots.

Or you could set a lower goal and have an even greater
chance of making your jackpot. Let's say you want to win
$640. We'll do this by using a simple betting system with
craps. If the following doesn't make sense to you, then read
up on how to play craps. Anyway,
with one such bet system you would bet $5 on the pass line,
and double your bet every time you win, until you hit $640.
If you lose then catch your breath by skipping two come-out
rolls and then start over with a $5 bet. Doing this you have
a 1 in 34 chance of winning $640, much better than
you'd have on slots. And if you don't win then you'll lose
only $33/hr. or so -- the same as if you were playing
quarter slots. So you'd have the same expected loss on craps
as you would on slots, but your chances of walking away a
$640 winner are much greater.

Practice

You can practice your Crash Course strategies
with fake money at Bodog.
The games play right in your browser and even work with
Macs -- and you don't have to register or give up your
email address to play the free games.

Congratulations!

You're now ready to play
table games and leave with more money in your pocket than if
you'd played slots!

See our complete lessons
for:

Practice gambling with play money

Before you throw down your hard-earned cash in a casino, PRACTICE FIRST! Learn the games with play money where it doesn't cost you anything if you lose. Seriously.

I like Bovada's practice games the best, because you can play right away without registering for an account. Most every other online casino makes you give up your email address just to play the games — ugh. That's why Bovada is the only online casino that gets space on my site. I hope other casinos will eventually start treating their visitors like human beings rather than walking wallets, but until they do, there's Bovada. One click and you're in.

Practice gambling with play money

Before you throw down your hard-earned cash in a casino, PRACTICE FIRST! Learn the games with play money where it doesn't cost you anything if you lose. Seriously.

I like Bovada's practice games the best, because you can play right away without registering for an account. Most every other online casino makes you give up your email address just to play the games — ugh. That's why Bovada is the only online casino that gets space on my site. I hope other casinos will eventually start treating their visitors like human beings rather than walking wallets, but until they do, there's Bovada. One click and you're in.